Jan. 19, 2006

Box Score

MOREHEAD, Ky. - Despite trailing by 18 points in an Ohio Valley Conference matchup on Thursday, the Samford University basketball team rallied for a dramatic 65-64 victory over the Morehead State Eagles at Johnson Arena.

"Down the stretch, I just told our team to slow down," said Samford head coach Jimmy Tillette. "We were taking too many bad shots and we weren't running the offense effectively. We got lucky tonight."

The Bulldogs were behind 64-61 with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game when junior Jerry Smith tipped in a shot with 17.6 second to trim the lead to 64-63.

Morehead State's (1-14, 0-9 OVC) Quentin Pryor then missed the opening end of a one-and-one and Samford (11-5, 7-2 OVC) drove down the court to attempt the game-winning shot. With the game on the line and time running down, Smith faked a jumper from the top of the key and drove down the lane for the left-handed layup.

With the win, Samford improved to 4-0 on the road against conference opponents this season. Morehead State dropped its 14th-consecutive game.

The Bulldogs trailed 56-41 with 7:36 remaining and 62-52 with 1:31 left in the game and outscored Morehead State, 13-2, down the stretch.

Gulina scored 17 of his career-high 22 points in the second half, while senior forward J. Robert Merritt drained four 3-point shots down the stretch. Merritt finished with 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field and connected on 6-of-11 of his attempts from beyond the arc.

Gulina, the Bulldogs' junior from Baton Rouge, La., scored Samford's first 12 points of the second half and was 8-of-17 from the floor.

Samford out-rebounded the Eagles 35-27 on Thursday and recorded 18 offensive boards.

"This is one of the few teams in the conference that we are bigger than," said Tillette. "Even with that, I think that we were lucky to get as many as we did tonight. Despite the win, I'm not really too happy about anything tonight."

Smith, whose heroics down the stretch led the Bulldogs to victory, finished with 12 points and grabbed five key rebounds.

Samford's Travis Peterson scored nine points on 4-of-10 shooting from the field and pulled down five rebounds. The Bulldogs' 6-foot-10 sophomore from Glendale, Ariz., also handed out three assists.

The Eagles shot 66.7 percent from beyond the arc in the first half and took a 32-22 advantage into the intermission.

Morehead State connected on 6-of-9 of its 3-point attempts in the opening period and was led in scoring by Quentin Pryor's 10 points. The Eagles' 6-4 junior from Eupora, Miss., was 2-of-4 from the floor and a perfect 2-of-2 from beyond the arc. He also made good on all four of his free throws.

Despite trailing by as many as 18 points in the first half, Samford used a 7-0 run late in the period to trim Morehead State's lead to 32-22. The Bulldogs' J. Robert Merritt scored eight points in the first 20 minutes of the game and made 2-of-5 attempts from 3-point range.

Samford shot a paltry 29.6 percent from the field in the first half, its second worst output of the 2005-06 season. Against second-ranked Texas on Nov. 16, the Bulldogs turned in a 26 percent performance in the opening 20 minutes of the contest.

"We were just unaware in the first half," Tillette said. "We were not energized, therefore we did not shoot the ball well and we didn't grab loose balls."

Morehead State went on an 18-0 run in the first half, which was capped off by four-consecutive 3-point baskets.

The Samford University basketball team will next be in action on Saturday, Jan. 21, as the Bulldogs conclude their two-game OVC road trip against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels at 6:30 p.m. (CST), in Richmond, Ky.